I Woke Up Fat

"I woke up fat," a woman wrote in an email to John Morgan. She went on to tell him of her years of failed yo-yo dieting. Then she found out her husband was having an affair with her neighbor. She got a divorce and gained even more weight. When she connected with an old friend about an impending grade-school reunion, she was extra-motivated to lose weight. Her friend then told her she had attended one of our seminars. Well, as the seminar coordinator, I can't get our program to every city, and we take off a few months in between our New Year and Fall seasons. What to do if you can't attend?  Watch the DVD of the seminar, just like the woman who "woke up fat." She was writing John because she did watch the DVD, wondering whether it could work as well as an in-person seminar. She had successfully lost the weight she wanted to. A bonus was that at the grade-school reunion, she reunited with an old flame and a year later, they were married.

It's always wonderful to get unsolicited emails telling about participant success stories. Here's another one that came with pictures:

BEFORE.

AFTER:

Pretty AWESOME, huh?

So good news! John Morgan Seminars is having a 50% off summer sale. So if you want to LOSE WEIGHT, STOP SMOKING, or ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING, here's your chance. You can also get a VIRTUAL MASSAGE from yours truly.  

Recently I was listening to an interview with Bruce Lipton who was talking about how the first seven years of our lives we are essentially in a trance. Our brain waves don't reach a conscious beta-wave state until about the age of seven. This means that we learn everything before the age of seven in a state of hypnosis and it is hardwired into our subconscious. The good news is that the subconscious makes sure that we don't have to figure out how to walk every time we wake up in the morning. In fact, anything we do automatic is the subconscious in action. The bad news is that it is habitual and automatic and if there is a behaviour you notice about yourself that you want to change, it's very difficult to make a change. One way is how we learn after the age of seven, which is through repetition. Anytime you find yourself sabotaging yourself in any area of your life, you are arguing with your subconscious. Anytime you find yourself struggling to make things happen, you are not in alignment with your subconscious programming. 

Your subconscious is concerned with one thing: your survival. It will go with the program that got installed in your first seven years, no matter if you're now an adult. So to work with the subconscious mind to make the changes you want in your life, you need to use the tool that installed the program/pattern in the first place: hypnosis. 

I get to talk to many of the participants who have attended our seminars over the years. The beauty of hypnosis is that it works with your subconscious mind. One woman I know stopped went gluten free and dropped a bunch of weight. That's what her body needed to do. Another one joined a weight-loss group. Another got a Wii fitness and started playing with her kids. One guy got off his blood pressure meds and dropped 40 pounds in 6 months. That's just the weight loss category. Then I hear from all the grateful people who quit smoking. One woman I talked to had smoked for 40 years!  Two hours later, she was smoke-free. I got to talk to her a year after she took the seminar. 

Why do I do what I do? Because it works. Check us out at John Morgan Seminars. 

"It's never to late to be what you might have been." ~George Eliot

Back in the wilderness for the blizzard!

Now with 100% fewer cigars!

The above picture comes from one of my favourite sites, Friends of Irony. I thought it was an appropriate way to tell you about the bit of excitement at our Nashville seminar. I got an email from my friend, NYC Slicker Doug O'Brien, who was our hypnotherapist that night. He said, "There was some famous C & W singer at the smoking seminar last night. The registration helpers were all excited. Do you know who it was?" I called our radio guy there who said very dryly, "The fact that he called her a C & W singer tells you everything." That got a *snort* out of John Morgan. Anyway, it was Jo Dee Messina! How cool is that?! For those who are now saying, "Who?" (You know who you are, Mum) Click here.

I'm listening to her song, That's God, right now. The snow has started for the 8 feet that we're we're supposed to be getting. Kidding. Only 3 feet, I think. I'm cozy in my office with M&M snoozing in their beds. They are snoring in tandem. :-) Life is good!

If you take the time to look around, you'll see it everywhere
It's right here around us, even when we're not aware.
It doesn't have to be a miracle
It might just be the little things
And even those who say they don't believe
They may not know it, but every day they see
That's God.

Stay warm & toasty. :-)

Special Day

Today is special, and both are boss-related. Firstly, according to my calendar, & prolly Hallmark, it's National Boss's Day. I guess that's to balance out National Secretary's Day. Except now they're called "administrative assistants." But I digress. In honour of today, I'd like to take this opportunity to honour my boss, John Morgan.

He's taught me an awful lot about sales:

• It's better to under-promise & over deliver.
• Negative reversals!
• Radio people are auditory: Even tho I'm v. visual, I've learned to communicate with Auditories.
• No doesn't mean no. It means no for now. And it means maybe 3 months from now. It could even become a yes.
• Which brings me to: keep going until.
• It doesn't matter how much time I spend or how long it takes me to do something, the bottom line is results.
• My success is my responsibility--v. empowering & sometimes daunting.
  

Another thing that he's reminded me of is the specialness that comes with birthdays. He has a tradition where you can honour a person's birthday twice a day just with a clock. "9:28, make a wish!" he'll say for his son's birthday. It's not just people, he has birthday celebrations for Snuffy, the black-nosed beagle because, you know, Snuffy is part of the fam. Every year he gets a pound cake & birthday gifts. For real. So, HAPPY BOSS'S DAY, John, and . . .

Results

The bottom line is that only results count. How you arrive at them does not. ~Mark Burnett

My book reading for the beach was Mark Burnett's Jump In. Mark Burnett, creator of Survivor, The Apprentice, the other Martha Stewart Apprentice, (which I LOVED!), etc. Anyway, it was the perfect book to be reading as I've been scheduling the fall John Morgan Seminars season. One thing I learned early on from John was that it doesn't matter how many hours I work, or everything I have to do. What matters is did I get the market and ultimately, did we have a successful event? Whether it takes me 2 hours or 20 is irrelevant.

The other thing I've learned is that No doesn't really mean No. It means no for now. Later could be a yes. If I'd known more about the radio business before I started, I would have had lower expectations for myself. I didn't know that what I do is considered impossible by some people. It's only impossible because they don't do it. It doesn't stop me from doing what I do. Mark's premise is Jump in, even if you don't know how to swim. Which is what I sort of did. Or rather, I had a friendly push from John Morgan. Go on in! The water's fine! ;-) He told me I could, and I believed him. A final quote from Mark:

Be an optimist and a dreamer. Expect greatness from yourself, and the best kind of unexpected surprises will find their way into your life.

Hypnosis for Half-Price!

Want to

Or

in time for bathing suit season? Guess what?!

YAY!!! We're having a sale!

If you've been wondering about our products, now is the time to CHECK US OUT!

The next CD isn't just for weight-loss. It's for anyone who has body-image problems--which is most of America. The great thing about this one is that there's a bonus CD that you can play in the car, at work, etc. You can't do that with the others because one of the first things he says is, "Close your eyes." Anyway, this is one of those that I listen to periodically to keep myself on track. I just started a new exercise program (more on that next week!) and this gave me the BOOST that I needed:

I love all his CD's, but this is my favourite:

When I first started working for him, I had just moved, was under a tremendous amount of stress, and blah blah blah. He did this process with me over the phone and then sent me the CD. The perpetual knot that I had in my stomach for months, melted away. This is another one of those CD's that I go back to again and again. It's the gift that keeps giving! And it's one of my CD's that I travel with. For those who are all i-Poddy, you can now download everything now, too.

Speaking of traveling, I'm on my way to NYC for a Jerry Stocking course. So I won't be blogging again until next Thursday. In the meantime, pop over to John Morgan Seminars and check out our sale. Just in time for Father's Day or Fido's birthday or to relaaaaaax . . . .

Snapshots from the New England Road

It was quite the trip. I got gluten free pizza on my birthday! And we had 21 inches of snow in the middle of it all. As we were driving on the highway through the blizzard, John said, "Talk to me, Hali." I'm too busy praying, I said. We stopped in Lebanon, NH at a ski/golf shop. I got some great long underwear, the kind that skiers & mountain hikers wear. Warm but not bulky. I didn't have much time because John said, "You're cutting into my nap time." Hahahaha

Here are a few pix in no particular order . . . in answer to Are you drinking coffee? Just for last week:

"Certified" sounds so official. Who is this "Rainforest Alliance" of the Holiday Inn? I hope this rainforest "content" is only coffee. And what's the other 70%? Uncertified content?

This was so funny to me because I have more wood in my woodshed and WOW! Really? That's how much wood costs? John said it's for the tourists who want to have a log fire.

I took this next picture for my nephew who loves all-things-piratey:

This was a great seafood lunch. The most entertaining thing is listening to John identify people's patterns in the restaurant. Then John said as our young waiter was taking our order, "This guy is an Enneagram 7." Remember Keanu Reeves in Bill & Ted's Most Excellent Adventure? Yeah, like that. I said he was in a band, so John asked him if he was. Psychic today! How did you know? Waiter Guy asked. And then, Guess what instrument I play . . . trick question! I don't play anything, I'm the lead singer. So cute. Hahahaha

This is a v. popular restaurant. The Illegal Sea Foods restaurant is in the back alley. Hahahaha

Happy 5th Day of Xmas

Today I forgot until I remembered that I have a blog. Mostly when I reference my boss-friend John Morgan, it's as the philosopher and author of Grasshopper Notes. However, today I've been v. busy getting together interviews with radio stations as we start our seminars next week.

STOP SMOKING FOREVER

OR LOSE WEIGHT & KEEP IT OFF.

It's pretty amazing to see a room full of die hard smokers throw away their cigarettes at the end of 2 hours-- cheering. Yes, CHEERING!!! The weight-loss seminar doesn't have as dramatic an ending, but the results can be v. dramatic. Both are life-changing & life-enhancing. Click here for the seminar schedule, and give yourself the gift of health, on this 5th Day of Christmas.

Forgetting the Bad

The above picture is a Grasshopper Note quote from John. He said it to me in a conversation. The photo is a shot of one of the hundreds of sunrises I used to watch in my old backyard. *sigh* LOVEly. So I was a bit . . . down, yesterday. Not something I usually admit to, but there it is. Too many notes. So here's the good: the gratitude I feel for friends & fam. THANK YOU for your kind words. Doug is on the road this week for us and called yesterday to get a head count for our seminars last night. He went all Ericksonian on me. It was v. cute. And John, my boss, my friend, manages to say the right thing at the right time. THANK YOU. I really am so blessed.

It is hard to feel anything else when you feel grateful.

P.S. I received a comment from a fellow percussor enthusiast for my Percussor 101 blogpost. A friend! Carol Porter lives in Hawaii & wrote a great Sept. 17th post on her own percussor experiences. (I tried to click on the actual post to create a link, but it didn't work, so that's why I'm giving the date for it). Hi Carol! :-) H.

Rules

What's the deal with the duct tape? I'll get to that. Back in January, I was on the road with John Morgan. I was registering participants for the weight-loss seminar. The seminar comes with a reinforcement tape for free, but most people like to upgrade to the CD, which is an additional $10 (right now it's $5 with the summer sale). Anyway, one woman started arguing with me that the CD should be free, and who uses tapes anymore anyway, blah blah blah. So you don't want the CD now? I asked. She said, "Of course I do. But I'm going to say something to the hypnotist!" I thought, John is going to have fun with you! At the end of the seminar, she was all smiles. John said good-bye to each person at the door and as she approached, he shook her hand and said, "Mary, have you noticed that you have a few more rules than the average bear?"

We all have rules of how things should be. I had an English professor say once that the more laws we implement, the more get broken and the more criminals get created. I think with rules, often the more rules a person has, the more they set themselves up for disappointment because other people don't fit into their model of how the world should be. AND they tend to judge or worse, should on other people with their rules because "that's the way it's supposed to be." It's a patterned response that begs the question, "Says who?" And is it a useful rule? Shoulding on yourself or others is a sure recipe for creating unhappiness.

And now to the duct tape: Duct tape is for taping ducts. That's the rule. However, over the years, it has evolved into the all-purpose everything solution. I love to find examples of its creative use. That's my rule.

Hallo from Marietta, GA!

I've no uploadability for photos, so they'll have to wait. I'm spending a coupla days with Dr. David Lee. It's turned into a more e-x-t-e-n-d-e-d visit than first planned. I got laryngitis during the Jerry Stocking seminar (more on that later) and it wasn't until this a.m. that I finally stopped denying I've been sick. "It's just laryngitis." The last time I did that, it turned into pneumonia while I was going through massage school, so I thought it best to address it. I'll say more about it when I have photos. Suffice it to say, I'm MUCH better, and should be leaving tomorrow...sometime...whenever...ish.

And now for something completely different...Jerry Stocking through the door of the Goo Goo Dolls:

It takes 36 muscles to smile, and only 4 to stick up your middle finger. ~John Rzeznik
Well, that's how I felt a couple times as I got pissed off. But we're never angry for the reasons we think we are, and it's really just patterns we're running. So I got over it. Eventually. By Day 3 I lost my voice, another pattern. Did that stop the excruciating 3-minute videotape where I had to answer the question What's it like to be you? NO. D'oh!

Jerry showed us Prince's performance at the superbowl where he sang in the rain. He said who else could pull that off? The Goo Goo Dolls at their 4th of July concert, of course. IN THE (non-purple) RAIN.

Everything's wrong, but it's all right. Jerry says if you deny the downside, you ignore 50% of life. And we make ourselves miserable wishing for things to be other than they are. I was struggling through some things [see Rezzie quote above] but I'm stepping out of my own way. I'm making a space not to have to know.

Name My only reference for models is The Devil Wears Prada. A v. famous one was at the seminar. I didn't know her name before, but I recognized her from magazines. Think about what your perceptions might be about models: Now throw them away.

Jerry sent us on a day-long scavenger hunt of sorts. We had to:
*see a dead body or lie in a coffin
*eat a bug [Eeeeewwww!!!]
*buy a pair of shoes for $5 or less and then negotiate a lower price.
*give the shoes to someone who needed them
*sing a song to some senior citizens
*donate an hour's worth of service [I took my percussor to the community center]
*tell a joke to 5 different people:

How many surrealists does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Fish.

Yeah, I got nothin'. I followed up with my favourite knock-knock joke:

Knock Knock
Who's there?
Olive.
Olive who?
Olive you.

*give & receive a hug/kiss from a man and a woman
*get on the radio or TV [60 second interview on the radio]
*get a free lunch
*make a bet with someone
DO ALL OF THIS WHILE STAYING IN PHYSICAL CONTACT WITH YOUR PARTNER.

That last part was v. challenging, especially getting in/out of the car! But we did it all--except for the bug-eating. The first was the dead body. We went to a funeral home and the director kept saying, I think ya'll are on something. So we showed him our list. I think y'all are on something. But he showed us Miss G. who was 2 days shy of her 92nd birthday. Did you know that you can't lie in a coffin? They have steel bars and aren't good for your back. You know, because they're made for dead people. My partner didn't think our free lunch at the community center counted (we attended a going-away party and they had food). We stopped at the end of our v. long day to get tea. Everything is always better when you have a cup of tea, and we were both exhausted. So we went to Crapplebee's first. Not only could we not get a free cup of tea, we couldn't get a server. I counted 8 TV's in the room, and it was so noisy. Not conducive to tea-drinking, anyway. I found a Mom 'n' Pop diner and they had homemade cheesecake with blueberry topping (YUM!!!) Pinkey, the gal behind the counter asked us about our day, and we showed her the list. There was a sign on the counter about entering for a free lunch, and I pointed to it for my partner and said, "Here's your free lunch." Pinkey said, "Would your tea and cheesecake count?" YES!!! So we got 2 free lunches. :-) All in all, an AMAZING day. When we got back, we recounted our experiences to the rest of the group. Then Jerry gave us each a single adjective that we had to use in lieu of any other adjectives. Mine was substantial. Others were terrible, questionable, delicious.

Back to the bug: I realized after talking to Delicious that I had made scary bug-eating pictures in my head. She said, "Just a little, tiny one. No chewing, swallowed with water, very fast." Oh. I was making HUGE pictures in my head of spiders and other creepy-crawlies. How many gnats have I inhaled and swallowed accidentally?! I also was the only person who didn't swim in the pond. Eeewww!!! I made it colder and ickier than it was. When Jerry challenged me to go to jump into the pond, I did it. Thanks to Delicious for going with me. She even offered me her bathing suit except that she couldn't find it. So I took off the top layers and ran in. Not as bad as I had made it out to be. I will remind myself of this when I'm making other molehills into mountains and bugs into watermelons.

So that's all I'll write for now. I'm at Dr. Lee's again tomorrow a.m. and then I'll be on the road on my way back home. Unless I'm not. Will stop in to see the rellies in Richmond. [Treasure hunt a huge hit!] Until then...adieu.

P.S. John Morgan is having a half-off sale with FREE shipping for ALL his products!!! The marketing dept. is streamlining all the products and getting rid of the old packaging (same recordings). Personal faves are Self-Image, I Love My Body, Relax in 2 Minutes. You may want to go see for yourself now. ;-)

Down My Road

Red bud trees in bloom.

I've been traveling quite a bit down my road. I clocked it: 8 miles of gravel 'n' dirt to the paved road. Then another 7 to the main road. Depending on the weather gods and Farmer Joe on his tractor, it takes about 40 minutes to get into town.

Working for John Morgan has given me the luxury of working from home, so that I don't have to driiiiiiiive everyday. The seminar season is winding down for the summer, and I've been doing massage therapy at the Mimslyn's new spa as well as doing outcalls for the Victorian Inn. I have been to Luray more in the past month than I have in the prior 10 months. With that, I've gotten to become a bit more familiar with my road. Here's the thing about taking a new direction:

It always seems longer in the beginning than it actually is, only because it's new. Once you've traveled it a few times, you get to know what to expect. The road will change according to weather conditions, but you get to choose how to respond. It's OK to delay an outing if the roads are icey--sometimes it's not the right time. Nothing is worth the risk of sliding off the mountain side.

Sometimes you'll meet something unexpected; yesterday there was a v. long black snake in the middle of the road. I didn't want to drive over it, so I got out and got a branch to coax it along. It recoiled and was going to strike. Crikey!!! But it recoiled out of the way so that I could drive past it. I think it attacked my tire as I drove by, but that was my outcome. To drive by without hurting the snake (after all, it was just doing what a snake does) and without getting myself hurt. Perhaps I would not be so brave if it were poisonous.

Sometimes emergencies arise, so you deal with them then and there. Last week there was a horse trotting down the middle of the road, so I called 911. I met Buddy walking down the road who told me that the horses often escape and walk along the road. Good to know. Expect the unexpected.

Through the seasons, there is always the opportunity for stillness and gratitude. It's a GLORIOUS drive down my road. So BEAUTIFUL. Even though I have a perma-frosting of dirt on my car, I am grateful for the nature that surrounds me.

Willpower . . . won't

Yesterday I watched Dr. Oz on Oprah. In the episode it followed the progress of 3 people who were quitting smoking. They all kept a video journal detailing the agony of willpowering themselves to quit. Willpower is like the bully forcing the Other-Than-Conscious mind to do something it doesn't want to do. It's kind of like blowing up a door with a stick of dynamite when you could have just used a key. Find the key.

Cigarettes are a very addictive drug. Who in this day and age doesn't know they're bad for you? And does knowing intellectually change the behaviour? I know an asthmatic who smokes. Think that's stupid? Wait--this person is also a doctor. John Morgan points out that it is not the intellect that got you to smoke in the first place, and it's not the intellect that will get you to stop. That goes for any habit or behaviour, really. So how do you find the key? You go to the source and work with it: that Other-Than-Conscious part of you that's driving your behaviour when you're not even aware of it.

There's one gal on the show, Wendie, who is set up to fail because her husband still smokes. So if she doesn't go back to it (which Dr. Oz suggested she would!) she will replace smoking with something else. For most women, it would be food. It pained me to watch those video diaries, not only because the quitters were in such distress, but because it was so unnecessary. I have personally witnessed a crowd full of smokers throw their cigarettes away AND CHEER at the end of a 2-hour Smoking Cessation seminar. They walk out of that room as non-smokers. We've had 3-pack-a-day-ers and smoked-for-40-year-ers, and they leave it behind.

So I wrote to Dr. Oz and suggested that we both have someone in common who could help with the smoking cessation: Doug O'Brien. Doug worked with Dr. Oz for 6 years, helping create the Dept. of Complementary Medicine at Columbia Presbyterian. Doug is also one of the hypnotherapists for John Morgan Seminars. It is what we do.

P.S. If you're reading this and have stopped smoking from our seminars, then I invite you drop Dr. Oz & Oprah a line. If you smoke and want to quit, get to a seminar or buy our DVD.

LOVE from the Road

I've been traveling with John Morgan this week in WV for his seminars. I was walking down to breakfast in our hotel and there was a sleepy man making his way back to his room holding a danish and coffee. For a moment I saw him as a little boy shuffling into the kitchen in crumpled jammies and his mother asking him if he wanted jelly on his toast. What a sweet little boy you were, I thought as I passed him. And here he is, middle-aged. How quickly life happens.

I have a dear friend whose mother has passed away. Even though it was expected after an illness, and she has a v. strong spiritual foundation, there's something so permanent about death. It's inevitable, we're all going to do it one day. Still. It makes me think about the intangibles and the lovelies and the sweetnesses. Someone once said that you don't lose anyone or anything, they are being returned to where they came from. From that perspective, all we can really say is thank you for however much time we were given for the priviledge of having them in our lives.

A couple years ago I was waiting for a friend on a bench outside the tea room in Shepherdstown. It was a perfect spring day; clear and sunny but not too warm. At the time I was reading Bruce Lipton's Biology of Belief. He was explaining how our souls are broadcasting a signal like a TV station, and our bodies are like a TV. When the TV dies, we are still broadcasting our signal, we just don't have the physical vehicle to express it. As I was reading this, I thought about my friend Dar who had cancer, and whom I just adored. Just then a breeze blew through the pear tree above me, and showered me with pear blossoms. It was the most GLORIOUS sensation. So sweet. I felt a love for her wrap around me and time stopped and eternity was a second. But I knew. I knew she was going to die, and soon. That experience of absolute presence overwhelmed my grief and sadness. My heart was so full of gratitude for all that she meant to me and still does. Because after everything, what's left is the LOVE. And when we allow that to expand and fill our hearts, there is room for nothing else.

The picture above is from a hardware store across the street from where I stayed in Huntington. We get reminders everywhere. LOVE, :-) H.

Postless Week

I am out the door to be on tour with John Morgan Seminars. Back on the weekend with many blog-worthy tales to tell, I'm sure. :-) H.

Venturing out...

I'll be venturing out into civilization today for John Morgan smoking cessation & weight-loss seminars in Hagerstown, MD. My friend Doug O'Brien is the hypnotherapist, so I'm looking FW to seeing him in action. He's v. funny and eloquent and Ericksonian. We first met years ago when we both staffed for Tony Robbins back when he was doing firewalks every weekend. I remember the last one we were at together back in the 90's. We were in Philadelphia and there were 14? 18? firewalk lanes, 1500 people, and we just shoved them all across the coals in 45 minutes because the fire dept. was threatening to shut us down. As they often did. So it went something like this:

Ready, Mary? Get in state, make your power move, & GO!
Cool-moss-cool-moss-cool-moss-cool-moss-cool-moss! OK, celebrate!
NEXT!

Ready-go-cool-moss-celebrate-next! Ready-go-cool-moss-celebrate-next!

"Cool moss" was what Tony told everyone to say as they were walking. Pretty cool, but not mossy. More...crunchy. Doug was at one lane & I was next to him and after participants were finished, staff could walk.

I looked over at Doug and said, "You gonna walk?" He said, "I dunno. Are you?" I said, "Eh. I have to take my shoes off." So in the end, we didn't. Funny how something so life-changing can become rather mundane...because it's integrated, perhaps. At the time, it was useful as a reference to prompt me to do things I might not have thought possible. If I can walk on fire, what else can I do that I didn't think I could? Good stuff.

I'm hoping to do the pop-in with a few friends along the way as I travel back through West VA. It's been a long time and there's never enough time to do everything and connect with everyone I want to see--but I will do my best!

On the phone all daaaaaaay...

It's the busy season here at John Morgan Seminars. People are motivated to stop smoking and lose weight and I'm doing my best to make that happen by bringing a seminar to [insert your town here]. However, while my voice hasn't reached the raspiness of Rue Lalenska with all my yakkity-yak-on-the-phone (yet) it hasn't left me much time in Blog Land. And I still have a new year's newsletter to finish--preferably while the year is still new, right? Didn't I promise helpful relaxation tips and spa recipes? Mmmm...yeah, I could use some of those right about now.

So here's my quote-for-the-day from that great philosopher Denzel Washington & one of my favourite actors:

Do what you have to do so you can do what you want to.

Lots of Busy's

This is a quickie just to get something up besides my anti-tickle rant. When I first started working for John Morgan Seminars I booked a seminar in Myrtle Beach, SC and the next night in Birmingham, AL. John said v. dryly, "You may want to get a map." Yes, I had just lumped the South all together. At one time I knew all the states, their capitals, the whole world, in fact. At one time. Anyway, so I got a map & this is it. I write quotes on sticky notes & put them in California (no plans to go there anytime soon). And yes, that's Stephen Colbert in Canada. And yes, I knew that was Canada before I got the map! No, really. I did. For some extra fun, try your hand at this little geography game that John sent me after my display of geographical retardation. haha

P.S. HAPPY B-DAY Fairie Elaine!!!

New Blog Policy

I'm taking a page from Margot Potter and I'm going to be more consistent with my posting. Like everyday consistent. Who said that??? Even if it's a quote-for-the-day. Because some days I'm not really doing anything I think would be screamingly blog-worthy. I walk my dogs and wash dishes to tango music and shmoooooze on the phone for John Morgan. Because some days are just lovely and ordinary. So here's your quote:

Consistency is far better than rare moments of greatness. ~Scott Ginsberg

Thanks, Nametag Guy! And I'll also take greatness. Why limit myself? ha ha

P.S. If you're reading this, Mum, your children would all like to know that you are having FUN in Scotland...so drop an email already! LOL from BNO (&2,3,4, & 6)

I've Decided to Take up Smoking

What a ridiculous thing to say! But it's funny because it's not. I've been thinking a lot about smoking behaviour and what prompts a person to start...or decide to stop....it's not like other decisions we might make, like what to cook for dinner or if we should buy that new pair of jeans or get the puppy or pot-bellied pig at the fair. It seems to me to be a more other-than-conscious (OTC) response for coping or dealing with stress. Or perhaps it's a response to wanting to fit in with a herd--to be one of the cool people. I remember in one of my trainings with Doug O'Brien, he was doing a smoking therapy on a guy and he asked him what appealed to him about smoking. One of the responses was "it's part of my bad-boy image." And Doug said, "Yeah...'cause that's really important when you're 43 years old."
And I also understand the addictive qualities of it and the chemical responses in the brain; it's sending dopamine to the pre-frontal cortex. But there are other ways to do that as well--exercise, for one. Who said that??? But whatever the reasons, for whatever behaviour, there's always a way to meet the needs of the OTC in a more healthy manner...because shift happens...just like the bumper sticker says. Happy Saturday! :-) H.